Fantastic article!! Claude helped me discover your page here on substack. I searched "best resources for staying in the know on social media". So happy to be following your content!
This lines up with the shift toward everyday customers outperforming paid creators on trust metrics, even with a fraction of the reach. A single unpolished review from a stranger with 200 followers often converts better than a polished post from someone with 200,000, because the incentive to lie is so much lower. Brands chasing influencer scale sometimes miss that the real asset is distributed ordinary people, not concentrated reach. Seeding product with regular customers is a much slower strategy but the trust compounds differently.
So clear after reading this how real engagement doesn't just live in the comments section or as a like count anymore. It's community-driven, it's stitches and reactions and conversations not even happening on the original account that posted the video. When you can create those spaces rather than staying in your own box, that's when it's successful
Rachel, the Mo Said line that stopped me: "it's not a line to remember, it's a personality and a point of view" describes something I've been doing without a name for it. I'm a slef-published novelist with zero ad budget, so my entire marketing strategy has been showing up, genuinely, in the comment sections of writers whose work I actually read. A real reaction here, a real story there, no hero asset, just consistent proof-points of a point of view. That's how I've been growing my audience, attracting like-minded people, and it's working. Slowly, of course, nurturing a lawn from seeds rather than unrolling a grass blanket already grown.
I didn't think of it as an "on-ramp framework" until I read this—I thought of it as a way to connect to potential readers and say, hi, I'm here, and this is what I can offer. Turns out that's the same strategy Burger King is running with a full agency behind it, minus the budget and the Whopper.
The thing I'd add from the small-scale end of this: listening scales down as well as it scales up. Mo talks about fans telling BK the Whopper was smushed. At my scale, it's a like, or a clap, or someone telling me a comment landed—and that's almost my entire R&D department. Almost, because I added one step before I started writing the novel. I wrote the blurb first and printed it on a piece of paper. Then, whenever I found myself in a lineup behind someone reading something, I'd try: "Sorry to interrupt—would you take one minute for a little market research, right here, right now?"
Every single time, the answer was yes. People love giving their opinion. I'd hand them the blurb and ask if it was a novel they'd read. A few handed it straight back—don't read books. Most said no thanks, at first. I asked why, and rewrote. Kept at it until they started saying, "Where can I buy it." No focus groups required, just attention. And never once slapped.
Fantastic article!! Claude helped me discover your page here on substack. I searched "best resources for staying in the know on social media". So happy to be following your content!
This lines up with the shift toward everyday customers outperforming paid creators on trust metrics, even with a fraction of the reach. A single unpolished review from a stranger with 200 followers often converts better than a polished post from someone with 200,000, because the incentive to lie is so much lower. Brands chasing influencer scale sometimes miss that the real asset is distributed ordinary people, not concentrated reach. Seeding product with regular customers is a much slower strategy but the trust compounds differently.
everything mojo touches turns to gold
they do good work!
So clear after reading this how real engagement doesn't just live in the comments section or as a like count anymore. It's community-driven, it's stitches and reactions and conversations not even happening on the original account that posted the video. When you can create those spaces rather than staying in your own box, that's when it's successful
Rachel, the Mo Said line that stopped me: "it's not a line to remember, it's a personality and a point of view" describes something I've been doing without a name for it. I'm a slef-published novelist with zero ad budget, so my entire marketing strategy has been showing up, genuinely, in the comment sections of writers whose work I actually read. A real reaction here, a real story there, no hero asset, just consistent proof-points of a point of view. That's how I've been growing my audience, attracting like-minded people, and it's working. Slowly, of course, nurturing a lawn from seeds rather than unrolling a grass blanket already grown.
I didn't think of it as an "on-ramp framework" until I read this—I thought of it as a way to connect to potential readers and say, hi, I'm here, and this is what I can offer. Turns out that's the same strategy Burger King is running with a full agency behind it, minus the budget and the Whopper.
The thing I'd add from the small-scale end of this: listening scales down as well as it scales up. Mo talks about fans telling BK the Whopper was smushed. At my scale, it's a like, or a clap, or someone telling me a comment landed—and that's almost my entire R&D department. Almost, because I added one step before I started writing the novel. I wrote the blurb first and printed it on a piece of paper. Then, whenever I found myself in a lineup behind someone reading something, I'd try: "Sorry to interrupt—would you take one minute for a little market research, right here, right now?"
Every single time, the answer was yes. People love giving their opinion. I'd hand them the blurb and ask if it was a novel they'd read. A few handed it straight back—don't read books. Most said no thanks, at first. I asked why, and rewrote. Kept at it until they started saying, "Where can I buy it." No focus groups required, just attention. And never once slapped.